How Do Subliminal Messages Work

How do Subliminal Messages work? Are Self Help Subliminals effective, and do they help you reach your goals?

Subliminal Messages are any sensory stimuli that are below your conceived threshold of perception.

You tend to find two categories of Subliminal Messages, either Visual or Audible.

Visual Subliminals are either flashed at such a speed that you are unaware of their presence, or they are masked so that you cannot see them.

And Audible Subliminals can either be masked with other sounds to hide the audio, or backmasked, (recorded backwards) so that you cannot consciously perceive their meaning.

Subliminal Messages were first introduced in 1897, but it wasn't until the 1950's that the subliminal recording became a controversial issue.

It was in 1957 that James Vicory claimed that during a cinema presentation, in which the audience was unknowingly subjected to the subliminal message, "Drink Coco Cola.. Eat Pop Corn," sales of these products rose over 50% and 18% respectively.

The use of Subliminals raised alarm bells, with a ban by the UK, Australian, and US Governments in 1958. Even a UN Study damned the use of Subliminal Messages claiming that, "the cultural implications of subliminal indoctrination is a major threat to human rights throughout the world."

However the debate on how do subliminal messages work, or whether or not they are effective continued, and to confuse things further, in 1962 John Vicory confessed that the results of the cinema study had been completely fabricated.

In fact no study since, has ever managed to substantiate the claims made by John Vicory's apparent findings.

So when it comes do the self-help industry, how do subliminal messages work? Or are they an ineffective way of self-improvement?

Although there have been no apparent proof that subliminal messages work to change behavior, there is evidence to suggest that the use of subliminals can be effective when they are goal orientated.

In a study by Jahan Karremans, an assessment of whether a subliminal message of a brand named drink would affect a person's choice of drink, and whether this message would cause them to feel thirsty.

The subliminal message was Lipton Ice, and the study proved that the preferred choice of drink for those who were thirsty, tended to be Lipton Ice, while those who were not thirsty were unaffected by the message.

Therefore, although the jury is still out on how effective subliminal messaging is, it seems that the use of self-help subliminals, in the case of goal achievement, could be the most effective use of subliminal messaging there is.

But buying individual CDs and DVDs can get quite expensive, and in the digital era, probably unnecessary. You would probably be better off looking for a reputable site to download Subliminal Cds as MP3s, and even download and copy your own Subliminal DVDs

Another alternative which would tailor your Subliminal Programs exactly how you want them, would be to create your own Subliminal CDs, I know it sound complicated, but it really is very easy to do.